Of jazz's bassists Michigan-native Ron Carter is perhaps the most recorded. Over the course of his 50-year creer, he has collaborated with McCoy Tyner, Cedar Walton and Freddie Hubbard.

An academic as well as a musician, Carter was a music professor at City College of New York for two decades before entering the faculty of Juilliard. In 2012 Down Beat magazine made him a jazz hall-of-famer.